DINERO, TEXAS. Dinero is on Farm Road 534
some ten miles southeast of George West in southeastern Live Oak
County. The town was first named Barlow's Ferry, after E. Barlow, who
in 1846 ran ferries across the Nueces River for local ranchers. In
1872 the name was changed to Dinero ("money" in Spanish); there were
rumors of a nearby silver mine hidden by Indians, and Mexican
treasure-seekers favored the area. The community's name was probably
changed, however, to reflect the area's profitable resources, which
over the years have included cotton, dairy farms, and oil and gas
wells. The community's first school opened in 1858 and closed in 1894.
In 1885 Dinero was granted a post office, and George Wright's general
store served a population of twenty. The community's population rose
to seventy by 1892, and by 1906 Dinero had two schools with two
teachers and a total enrollment of twenty-four. The population was
thirty when the town moved a mile west in 1914 to be on the San
Antonio, Uvalde and Gulf Railroad. Oil and gas discoveries in the
1920s failed to make Dinero a boomtown, and only a church, a school,
several businesses, and scattered dwellings marked the community on
the 1936 county highway map. The community's population reached fifty
in 1943, and Dinero's separate schools for white and Mexican-American
students were annexed to the George West Independent School District
in 1949. From 1964 to 1990 Dinero reported thirty-five residents and
three businesses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Live Oak County Centennial
Association, Live Oak County Centennial (George West, Texas,
1956). Live Oak County Historical Commission, The History of the
People of Live Oak County (George West, Texas, 1982). Ervin L.
Sparkman, The People's History of Live Oak County (Mesquite,
Texas, 1981).